SAT, FEB 6 / 7 pm
Dir. John Walker | 2009 | Canada | 108 min
* Introduced by Director John Walker
It was news that shook the English-speaking world. Celebrated British explorer Sir John Franklin and his crew of 128 men had perished in the Arctic ice during an ill-fated attempt to discover the Northwest Passage. More shocking though, they had descended into madness and cannibalism. A Scottish doctor John Rae had discovered what six years of searching by British, Americans, French and Russian had failed to.
With the film Passage, filmmaker John Walker employs an innovative approach to structuring the John Rae’s incredible multi-layered story by bringing its vibrancy to life through the use of a unique blend of dramatic action, and behind-the-scenes documentary footage. Passage is a story of incredible sacrifice, stunning distortion of the truth and single-minded obsession that challenges the way we look at history.
“Nothing in this daring film is straightforward. As much as it chronicles Rae’s journey across the Arctic, Passage also traces a journey across time, an encounter with the Victorian world that will mesmerize viewers.” – Michael Robinson, Humanities Department, University of Hartford
